Alex Garland doesn’t want you to know why they’re fighting. He wants you to know how it’s affected regular people. He wants you to know what it’s like to be forced to be neutral because it’s out of your control. He wants you to know what’s happened to a country in which a full-scale civil war was unimaginable. With his new movie, Civil War, he asks Americans (or anyone in the Western world really) what if there was a war going on right outside your door?
That’s the premise of Civil War in a nutshell. There’s army vehicles and soldiers on every street in the major cities, makeshift refugee camps in abandoned stadiums, and the sound of gunfire and bombs every night. The film follows the events of the war from the perspective of four journalists (played by Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson) on a road trip from New York to Washington DC. Dunst excels at portraying the stoicism of a seasoned war journalist, alongside Moura who once again proves to be a standout as he was in the Netflix series Narcos (2015-2017). Spaeny is equally excellent as Dunst’s emotional opposite; the young, aspiring journalist who has yet to experience the harsh realities the seasoned adults have, making her a great surrogate for the audience. Civil War also features Nick Offerman as an unnervingly passive US president. The film opens with him rehearsing a speech; insensitively remarking ‘The greatest victory in the history of America’ which provides a layer of dark satire to the already poignant subject matter. Indeed, it was generally a great choice from Garland to have the film follow the perspective of war journalists; watching the events unfold from a seemingly neutral perspective makes the moral implications of the war much more apparent.
It would be underselling to describe their road trip as treacherous. Where Garland’s other films such as Men (2022) or Annihilation (2018) carefully orchestrate your emotional tension which lead to a climax, Civil War grabs your fear and keeps hold of it until the very end. There’s a constant state of tension whether the characters are drinking around a campfire in an abandoned parking lot with the sounds of battle in the distance, or on the front line dodging waves of gunfire as they attempt to document the harrowing events. Being one of A24’s biggest budget films so far, it certainly shows through its scenes of battle, which are some of the most gritty and realistic I’ve seen in a film. The sound design alone warrants this film to be seen on the biggest and loudest screen possible, with some of the most terrifying gunfire I’ve heard in a film.
As you’d expect from a big budget film headed by A24, Civil War also boasts some uniquely striking cinematography. From a crimson rural landscape lit up by patches of fire to a shot of someone sitting in front of colourful graffiti amidst an intense firefight, Civil War maintains its arthouse sensibilities whilst utilising its budget to create a stunningly terrifying world. The atmosphere it creates is undoubtedly dystopian, and even borderlines apocalyptic level, with certain elements fondly reminding me of the barren hopelessness of AMC’s The Walking Dead. Some of the music choices were especially reminiscent of The Walking Dead. Using heavy rock or even rap music to satirically juxtapose the dystopian atmosphere; a montage of tanks, helicopters and army vehicles being deployed to De La Soul’s Say No Go was oddly satisfying. Nevertheless, these moments never compromise the tension. There’s one scene in particular with a sniper which kept my teeth grinding even though I knew what was coming. In addition, the scene with Jesse Plemons turns out to be much more terrifying than the trailer let on, proving the actor to once again be the master of ‘unnervingly polite’ characters.
For a film which evokes such negative emotions, it deserves unanimous positivity. It’s concise narrative keeps you perpetually on the edge of your seat, and it displays some of the finest filmmaking A24 has produced so far. Some may find its subject matter overbearing at times, as it deals with the grim reality of war journalism rather heavy handedly, but I found this to be a good thing. It forces us to face a reality which we are not so far behind, and delivers a cautionary tale without getting bogged down in the politics. I’d even go so far as to say Civil War is the scariest film of the year so far, as it challenges something we often take for granted in the Western world – peace and comfort.
G does Films 